The immigration system is a muddled mess. And Washington can't lift a finger to help.

As Congress departs for its five-week summer vacation, consider the mementos left behind in Washington, D.C.

• Empty rhetoric about providing relief for a U.S. Border Patrol overwhelmed by Central American immigrants.

• Renewed justification for the historically high disgust expressed by the American people for this hapless, hopelessly divided Congress.

• Still more motivation, as if more was needed, for President Barack Obama to assert his intention to "act alone" on the border crisis, thus guaranteeing the distrust and lack of cooperation between the White House and Republic leaders will worsen.

• Scattered bits of pointless legislation — some designed to placate the Republicans' "tea party" faction; others intended to satisfy the policy whims of Senate Democrats — that together amount to a legacy of nothing.

Nothing passed. Nothing done. Thousands of Central American women and children piling up in Texas, and a frustrated, overwhelmed Border Patrol with no additional resources to deal with them.

Much of the exasperation for not coming up with an emergency funding bill has been laid, appropriately, on a faction of House Republicans, who did not blanch at humiliating Speaker John Boehner. He was forced to pull his relief bill from the floor on Thursday following a conservative revolt.

Alternative legislation floated Friday served only to make the chaos appear worse. Republicans, including Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona, put together an awkward two-bill alternative that had no chance of becoming law.

That plan included cutting Obama's Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program, which allows about 500,000 young people brought to the U.S. as children to work or attend college. That's right: House Republicans are targeting the most sympathetic players in the immigration debate. That is neither good politics or good policy.

The House bills authorized just $659 million to deal with the immigrant influx. They included unambiguous language authorizing border governors to call up the National Guard to provide border security.

As bad as the bills were, at least the House tried. The Senate left after Thursday's session, without a vote and without allowing debate on Republican alternatives. Sen. John McCain's palpable anger was well placed.

Nor was Obama of any help. His flip-flopped intransigence against amending a 2008 law so Central American children stopped at the border can be returned home more promptly is every bit as partisan as the tea partiers he decries.

The flow from Honduras and El Salvador will not abate as long as immigrants have an expectation of remaining in this country. And under current law, they do.

Not all will make it. The journey is dangerous. Children died or are kidnapped along the way. Some die crossing the Rio Grande or as they wander in remote areas. There is no humanity in keeping the pipeline to Texas open.

And then there is all that presidential "act alone" talk. The president's oft-stated contempt for Republicans may be satisfying. It may be justified.

But the president's exasperated declarations that he will implement preferred policies on his own plays a central role in the failure to come to a meeting of the minds. Republicans do not trust Obama to implement legislation as written, and his "act alone" rhetoric feeds that paranoia.

The incompetence and hyper-partisanship on display in Washington last week was evenly divided. Lawmakers can take solace in that as they relax on vacation.

Meanwhile, issues at the border remain unchanged. The immigration system is a muddled mess. And Washington can't lift a finger to help.